Indonesia will propose the creation of an Asia-Pacific civil aviation group if it is elected to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of Category III for the 2016-2019 term, an official said.

Special envoy of the Indonesian transportation minister to ICAO Indroyono Soesilo said here on Tuesday Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has come up with the proposal now that only the Asia Pacific region has no civil aviation group.

"It is highly regrettable that Asia-Pacific countries have no group to support each other," he said on the sidelines of a meeting of the ICAO Council here.

African countries have African Civil Aviation Commission (Afcac), European countries have European Civil Aviation Conference (Ecac) and South American countries have Latin American Civil Aviation Commission (Lacac), he said.

In addition to serving as discussion media to answer future challenges to civil aviation, the presence of the civil aviation group will play a significant role in raising support to any of its members bid for the membership of the ICAO Council, he said.

"Each of the groups has policy to rotate its members to the ICAO Council once every three years. We have no such group so Asia-Pacific countries must work hard to raise support from all over the world," he said.(*)